I'm writing this review barely an hour after having Infinite Wealth. Normally I'd wait a bit and let it sit in my mind as I try to pick it apart, and I know I'll realise that the edges are rougher, I know that...but right now I want my memory of this to remain as untainted as possible. I know that sometime in the future I'll look at this review with tainted eyes, cringing at my self but I want to write this right now so I can look back and see that I genuinely loved this game deeply.

It took nine whole games to get here, and I'm at the end of it with my emotions being a complete mess. It takes so much hard work to sell a character, much less the same one around eight times over, and each time I've fallen in love deeply with Kiryu Kazuma all over again.

"They all treat you as if you're some hero. If we ended up just like you...the illusions of the yakuza life would be stronger than ever."

Piece by piece for eight whole games, we've been building up the legend of the Dragon of Dojima alongside him. Every admiration thrown towards Kiryu doesn't feel like just cheap talk, it feels earned because you yourself earned it.

Infinite Wealth isn't an erasure of every misstep this franchise has taken, it doesn't hide it but instead puts it on full display, it shows just how much you have impacted the world around you for so long to the point where at the end of Kiryu's life, the only question that remains was "Was it worth it? Was it a life worth living?"

It's hard having the courage to do something. It's even harder to be the one to give that courage to others but this common trait, this link that runs deeper than the dragons on their backs, is exactly why Infinite Wealth isn't just talk. You've seen that exact event take place time and time again, and now all that remains is the end of Yakuza as you know it. It asks you to be brave and head towards an unfamiliar future, and let the burdens of the past be a weight on your shoulders no more.

I wish I had something more meaningful to say, and in the future I probably will, but I want a record of my feelings as they are now. A public if not embarrassing declaration of my utmost love for this entry in the series, guess I'm taking a page out of Ichiban's book in doing this. Not that it matters, I think we can all benefit by being a bit more like Ichiban Kasuga.

Yakuza Zero, the one that started it all. And by "it all", I mean the Yakuza series.

First and foremost, that's what this game is; the first in the order of release and the foremost in time. Everything people would come to love about Yakuza, Yakuza 2, Yakuza Kenzan, Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4, Kurohyo 1 and 2, Yakuza Dead Souls, Yakuza 5, Yakuza Ishin, etc. has its roots in this legendary and primary game. You simply got to give it up for when a great game launches a great series.

It establishes the beloved characters and memorable settings, with later games taking their cues from this introductory chapter. If you're gonna dive into the Yakuza series, take a hint from Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music and "start at the very beginning, a very good place to start".

Some series like to start with a game just called "Series Name" or if they're ambitious "Series Name 1"; maybe throw in a subtitle for good measure like "Series Name: Origins". But the Yakuza series--as it continues to be called to this day even after eight years of classic games--always likes to take the road less travelled, hence the decision to name its first entry Yakuza Zero. Can't get earlier than that.

Looking forward to playing the next game in the series, Doki Doki Panic.